Winslow Homer is one of the greatest American artists of the 19th century. His paintings always show the relationship between human and nature. Homer was the second of three sons in his family. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1836, Homer grew up in Cambridge. His mother was a painter so Homer became quite interested in painting when he was very young Supported by his family Homer began his painting career. When he was 19, he worked as an assistant in the trade of making and preparing pictures for printed media. During that time, he learned the process of lithography. Two years later, he made up his mind to become an independent illustrator.

For another few years he worked in Boston, drawing illustrations for stories in some newspapers and magazines. In 1859, he worked for Harper's Weekly as an artist and started to paint seriously so that to create excellent works. In order to improve himself, he would like to go to Europe to learn something more about painting. However, he was not able to go there but was required to draw paintings of the Civil War in American history. As a result, he went to Washington, D.C. and created several paintings of the war. His paintings of the war showed different ways that the conflict influenced people.

In one of those paintings, The War for the Union, Eighteen Sixty-Two - A Cavalry Charge, he showed the Southern Confederate soldiers are shown forced under the feet of the horses, while Union soldiers hold their swords high and moving on proud. There was another famous painting, Home, Sweet Home, in which Homer describes two soldiers listening to music played by military musicians so as to inspire the soldiers. The name of the song is just "Home, Sweet Home." These paintings brought him great success, one of his paintings -- Prisoners from the Front, was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle on behalf of the United States.

Then Homer encountered a great change, he began to use watercolor paint. Instead of using oil paints. Homer's decision to use watercolor have much to do with his another decision. Homer always wanted to be an independent artist so that he gave up his work for the magazines and concentrated himself on painting. Then Homer began his formal painting career. During this period, Homer created his finest painting-Breezing Up. Winslow Homer died in 1910 and he was universally regarded as America's greatest painter of the time. His last painting is Right and Left. It describes the story of two ducks and a hunter.